Damn good OS. Performance of XP with Vista security. It should be ok on single core CPU's like the older Intel Celeron and P4s or AMD Sempron/Athlon's, just make sure you have around 2GB RAM, a basic graphics card helps too, just because of the Aero theme. The Aero theme will run on most onboard Intel graphics chips I have come across so far. With the right setup it can run very well indeed. I would also avoid using internet explorer and go to Google Chrome as it is much faster.
I am running both windows xp and windows 7 on my system and believe me windows 7 is much quicker. One of the best os from microsoft so far. I say switch over compulsorily.
I was a die hard XP user (still think it was a great OS) from way back. I completely skipped Vista cause I could not come up with a single reason to move to it. I started looking at Windows 7, liked what I saw and figured it was about time to make the change. After using it now for a few months, I'm very glad I made the switch. A suggestion. If you are going to change to Windows 7, might as well go with the 64 bit version. It just doesn't make much sense anymore to stay with 32 bit. It allows more memory to be used and is much more future proof. I did not have any issues with any software that I previously had when I switched to this 64 bit OS (Windows 7 Professional x64). I did lose an ancient TV tuner I had that had been long discontinued and would not work in Windows 7 because of no 64 bit driver support. Got myself a newer TV Tuner that would work and I'm good to go. All in all, a very versatile stable OS.
Pretty much what everyone else has said. I was a XP user for all these years and never touched Vista. So for me. The change in interface was huge and shocking. I was overwhelmed and a bit lost at first. After a few days. I was fine. It runs smooth as butter and just plain "works". Usually people wait until SP1 is released. With 7. No worries.
Yes, I'd say go for it. I installed Win7 on all my machines about 2 months ago, and haven't looked back. IMO it's faster than even Windows XP x64 (which I've been using since 2005 or so, and which is also faster than 32-bit XP). With regards to stability it's harder to say how it compares to XP, considering it's relatively new, but I've yet to see it crash on any of my machines - unfortunately I can't say the same for Vista (which I had only on my laptop, and which DID crash far too often - I now run Win7 on my laptop as well).
I installed Windows 7 x64 to take advantage of 64 bit processing for my main interest of Photoshop post-processing on my older duo-core Athlon 4000+ desktop with 4 GB RAM. It works fast and well and is flexible enough to run older XP apps and utilities with few hassles. Recommended.